Opinion
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Clark: Am I cheating if I use Google? Hmm, I’ll look that up

It’s amazing where modern technology can lead you. Recently, I’ve been concerned it might be leading me somewhat astray.

It was the early 19th-century Scottish writer Sir Walter Scott, described in a BBC Two biography as “the founder of the genre of the historical novel involving tales of gallantry, romance and chivalry,” who wrote:

Oh what a tangled web we weave,

When we practice to deceive.

I used Google to look that up on the Internet, in effect exacerbating my problem.

I started out wondering whether I had become a cheat, caught up in my own tangled web, when I occasionally turned to Google and the Internet when working on crossword puzzles.

I was seduced into this situation when my wife bought me a new iPad. Faster than Adam could devour Eve’s apple, I was using the latest generation Apple iPad on trivial pursuits of esoteric information about what I was watching on TV or reading. The only concern this raised was whether my attention span was taking on that of a gnat.

The ethical question arose when I realized that those last two or three words I couldn’t figure out in crosswords could be found by tapping into this wondrous new resource handily at my side.

I admit this isn’t my first venture down the slippery slope to wherever bad people go as far as crossword purists are concerned. According to my third edition of The New York Times Crossword Puzzle Dictionary, there are 24 possible answers to that question, ranging from pit to perdition and pandemonium. Actually, that’s my second move down that slope — using a dictionary to find answers. My first was using a pencil with an eraser. To some, that’s cheating. To me, it just seemed to be practical.

However, I do admit to some qualms with the advent of the hand-held iPad and Google.

To help me resolve the problem, I decided to avail myself of the devil I know in this case, and ask Google and Yahoo what they had on offer concerning crossword cheating and the use of Google. I knew my concerns weren’t misplaced on Yahoo when the first page had two references to cheating with crosswords and eight items on cheating on a spouse.

The Scroll, the blog at the University of St. Thomas at St. Paul, Minn., offered a discussion on whether using Google for crosswords was cheating. Answers seemed split on the question. Purists argued even using a pencil with an eraser was a no-no (although they didn’t phrase it that way) while others saw it as a logical last resort when stumped. While one responder suggested using Google was like cheating at solitaire because you are too lazy to reshuffle, others argued it allowed you to expand your knowledge of words and meanings, actually learning through the experience.

I concur with Deb Amlen who summed up her feelings on the question in the New York Times in August 2012. She wrote: “Puzzles are games, and games are meant to be fun. If we take them too seriously, we’ve lost our sense of play.”

I can just see Inspector Morse of the British television mystery series of the same name, turning over in his grave at that response. He was often portrayed writing his answers against the clock to The Times crossword with his fountain pen. He probably thought his sidekick, Sgt. Lewis, would have used a pencil.

I confess I need all the help I can get with some crossword puzzles. My NYT dictionary bears dark thumb marks along the side of its pages from handling newsprint, and some of those pages are stuffed into the book, having broken away from its spine. And I am learning new words, although I am not sure in what conversations I might be able to use them.

Someone once wrote, “Confession is good for the soul.” I’m not sure to whom that is attributed, but I could look it up on my iPad.